The "Friends" list is one of the lesser-used functions of CoH for me. Most of the people I actively play with are in my supergroup, and many of the people I have friended in the past now play on different servers or aren't on when I'm on.

However, if you're not in a supergroup, your friends list will be very important to you so you can find the people you want to play with again and again. Especially if you're able to log on every day, keeping a friends list is a great way to keep up with what's going on, and even chat with people who are on different servers!

Below is a list of tips about using your Friends list, adding people to this list, and maintaining close bonds with the people you friend.

Tip #1: Global Friend or just Toon Friend? Your Decision!
You can choose to either friend a person by their global name (the name with an @ in front of it), or you can choose to friend a person by just their individual toon's name. When you right-click on another player, it will bring up two options for friending: "Add Friend..." and "Add Global Friend."

If you want the person to be able to find you no matter what toon you log in on, it is best to globally friend them. However, if you want the person to only know you as one toon, just choose "Add Friend." Generally, I've found that adding Global Friends is a lot more useful, since I don't get to be on every day; however, if you only play a toon with a certain group of people, perhaps just adding them on an individual toon's list would be more appropriate for you.

Tip #2: Chatbox Shortcuts for Friends List Communication
If you're like me and are playing CoH on a laptop, you know the singular frustrations of using a touchpad mouse to try to navigate through menus. First, you have to find the stupid cursor, which can get lost in all the pretty graphics! To avoid frustrations, you can open your friends list by simply typing /fl into your Chatbox and hitting Enter.

Also, if you want to address everyone on your friends list at once, and you don't want to have to fool with all those tiny channel buttons on the Chatbox, you can choose the Friends channel by typing /f and then following it with your message.

Tip #3: After you friend, don't leave 'em hanging.
Once you friend a person, you hopefully will talk to them again at some point. But for some odd reason, adding someone to a friends list can be like telling somebody at the end of a date, "I'll call you"--sometimes, the connection never sets up.

To avoid this, try to send a Tell to each of your friends list buddies every time you're on, or at least every other day. Whether they know you by character name or global name, you can send a Tell, and even if they're not on at the moment, they can see your message the next time they log in, and know that you remember them and want to know how you're doing.